The Magician (2015)

A mixture of titanic, disney and magic, they made it work!

The story is quite common, but the story around it isn't, I so loved the magical touch to this story, it made it really interesting! They managed to keep me hooked from the beginning trough the end of this movie. The surroundings were gorgeous, the clothing was beautifully made and the decor is interesting. There were some funny parts, that I found really enjoyable.
As someone that comes from Europe and has zero knowledge about the Dynasties in Korea I so find the usage of costumes so interesting!!
It would have gotten a full 10/10 if there was a bit more action, it had some but it was stuffed into 15 tiny minutes, I hoped they played that out a bit longer, it would have wrapped up the story a bit better in my opinion.
The actors did a splendid job, from the minor ones to the two leads, whoms connection I felt troughout the whole movie.
The music was perfectly chosen in the scenes and I surely will rewatch this movie.

Watch this if you like romance, magic, humor and historical movies.
Skip this if you like full on action, blood and dislike romance.

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Joseon Magician is classic romance in extraordinary setting. this saeguk + Magic is a treat to watch.
settings are exquisite. landscapes are so beautiful, camera work is finely detailed and is very much captivating. costumes, interior design, lamps, stage setting.......everything is rich. production values are high for a movie to have.

magic is WOW factor, this movie had. although it did not excite me. machinery, equipment, assistants work is pretty good and is interesting to watch. this is the first time i have seen magic in saeguk. i have not seen any other such works to compare with.

romance in this movie somehow worked, though its not that impressive. it felt like alladin type of romance.there were parts of romance which felt like The Illusionist Movie.
Actors did good job. yoo seung ho is handsome. his smile is alluring as always and his acting is good too. this movie is first work after getting discharged from army. however he did not let the gap affect him. he was really cool performing tricks. And i love how i can find him everwhere, these days.
go ah ra has pretty face and great eyes. there is something interesting this girl has, that other korean actresses dont have. but i am not fan of her acting, she felt stiff sometimes.and her character some how lacked depth when compared to magicians character.
joo yoon hee is impressive here as a blind woman. she made character's suffering believable.

although the movie is absolutely grand, it could not impress me. there is something which did not made me connect to it. i can not pin point exactly what it is. it could be the plot. i am not really sure. trailer made me watch this movie, but however movie did not turn out as thrilling as trailer is. but it could be your one time watch movie. you can try this, if you want to watch something that pleases your eyes and you are not mindful of plot .

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The tricks of magicians of past centures are represented awesome here. That equipment, its moves, complication, danger, is exciting, looks powerful and creepy at the same time. For me, this is a movie of the equipment, magical tricks and of that how people deal with this. Because other things about the movie weren't interesting for me.
My standarts for movies are higher that for dramas. This story, characters, plot and actors would be good for a drama, for sure. But movie is something that has to shake my world, overwhelm me with rare emotios, just within its 2 hours. It has to be much better than dramas. As I mentioned, only the magician's tricks with equipment did this to me. But in this movie it is just a background for the main actions.

Apart from that, it was a not bad melodrama. Jo Yoon Hee portraying her character touched me. Go Ah Ra seemed too good for this melodrama. I never used to like these two actresses, but here I probably recognized their capability. I'd like to see Go Ahra in a great, stong movie.

Yoo Seung Ho is way too sweet, too sugary, even when he plays such a dramatic character. I can't take seriously his role here. Honestly, I wanted to watch this movie because of him. But I think, for now I feel tired of him.

This movie is just okay and I have nothing else to say about it.

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Exploitation and corruption are never far from entertainment.

I probably heard that from somewhere but this was the first thing that came to mind while watching this movie.

Being a fan of historical movies/dramas, I knew I would enjoy this but the plot was quite predictable. Even better, this movie is capable of making you all mushy on the inside and then disgusted with the human race. Almost no in between.

This was my first time watching a film featuring the actress, Go Ah Ra. As the princess, I feel that her strong features and personality make her memorable and it worked well with the “Bear” joke going on between the main characters when they first met. in contrast, is Bo Eum( Jo Yoon Hee), the older sister with delicate features, portrayed with constant composure, and knowing of how she established herself- you can’t help but admire her.

Interesting enough, it’s when she is shaken up by the antagonist, Gwi Mol (Kwak Do Won) , does it add weight to the villain. The subtle act of reintroducing him using his signature sharpened nails -loved it. It's brilliant how his revenge against Hwan Hee almost put the country in jeopardy - Gwi Mol is ruthless, merciless, clever as hell, but frankly bringing Hwan Hee back to the theater for the final showdown was a dumb ass move. Yes, I get how fucked up it is to turn his "home" to his grave but at the same time he brought Hwan Hee back to his element, assuring me he would fail.

I’m a sucker for plots that involve two characters who have a positive impact on each other but you can’t help but ignore the reality of their situation and feel all bittersweet about it. However, the twist that caught me off guard was (Lee Kyeong Yoeng) General Ahn’s decision for the princess in the end. I loved this character. He takes on the father role to the princess when all seem to have abandoned her, even sacrificing himself. I appreciated him so much.

Despite it’s predictability, this movie was enjoyable to watch, visually-appealing, and with great acting. I recommended it if you are a fan of the historical genre

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When it comes to romance, this movie had it plenty. It was a nice love story, intense, innocent and yet complicated and tragic. The two main character looked good together, though the magician looked a bit too young. Now, for the parts that I didn't like; the action scenes were good, but the CGI were bad. The back story was confusing, as they didn't really explained it well. Also, the princess's story was explained properly either. The ending, finally, could have been better.
Other than that, it was an enjoyable movie, with good performances and decent settings. So, five out of ten.

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Emotional and touching

I honestly don't even know what to say. This movie is the kind of movie that isn't a mega hit but definitely did a good job with everything. It is really worth watching though I was a little bit disappointed at the ending where we didn't really see the characters again but that also made it more emotional because we knew how they were but we didn't get to see them on screen one last time.

It really left a strong impression on me the way all played out. But the reason why the re-watch value is a bit lower is because once you know how it ends, its the kind of movie that can't be as entertaining anymore since you already knew the climax.

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Amei o filme! Eu vi mais porque amo o ator, um dos meus bias . Ele tem um sorriso maravilhoso, ninguém pode negar, mas enfim, não to aqui pra falar dele né kkkkkkkkk.
Também adoro a Go Ara, e ela se saiu muito bem como a princesa.
O filme se passa após a dinastia Joseon perder uma guerra civil contra a dinastia Qin. Como forma de respeito aos vitoriosos, o reino Joseon envia a filha do rei derrotado para se casar com o príncipe de Qin.
Uma caravana de soldados com um líder general é enviada levando a princesa para o palácio Qin. No entanto, no caminho ocorre uma forte tempestade, e todos da caravana são obrigados a fazerem uma pausa de alguns dias no bairro mais próximo, que é um bairro boêmio primórdio de Joseon (tipo esses bairros "luz vermelha" que tem gente de tudo quanto é tipo, com bordeis, bares, pontos de drogas, mendigos, hotéis, artistas e tudo mais).
Numa casa de espetáculos que tem lá sempre ocorre a apresentação de um mágico, provavelmente o artista mais popular do bairro. O mago a princípio é depressivo e cheio de dilemas (meio perturbado e boêmio), além de viver tentando fugir da influência das pessoas ao redor dele. Apesar disso ele se mantém animado e curte a vida como pode.
Numa noite em que a princesa tenta dar uma volta para conhecer o tal bairro festivo (coisa que ela nunca viu na vida), ocorre um incidente e ela é obrigada a fugir para a mata.
O mágico tomava um ar e refletia sozinho na beirada de um penhasco. A princesa acabou parando no mesmo lugar. A princípio sem notar a presença do mágico ali na área um tanto escura, ela para na beirada do penhasco e pensa em pular dali e acabar com sua triste vida de uma princesa que foi simplesmente vendida para outra dinastia, uma troca de barganha.
Mas nosso mágico a aborda antes da louca pular, claro.
Depois acontece uma cena bem hilária que não vou contar, mas é assim que tudo começa entre os protas.

Eu particularmente gostei muito da mensagem que o filme passa. Também do clima misterioso que nos faz pensar se a tal mágica é mesmo truque ou é de verdade (mas é justamente nesse dilema que entra a moral da história). De fato, achei incrível.
É fofo e romântico, sem melar muito. E como o próprio nome sugere, é mágico.

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This is a beautifully filmed movie, the cinematography is perfect, the settings are gorgeous, the music is touching and the actors play their parts well. I expected this movie to be well done when I started this, after watching the trailers and gaining high expectations, but this was beyond my imagination.
From reading the synopsis I thought that this film would be about a travelling magician who joins the princesses’ bridal party and does magic for them on the journey and they fall in love blah blah blah. Instead, we have a famous magician named Hwan Hee who works as a performer in the red light district. He bumps into the princess one night when she gets lost in the forest. After coming to one of his shows disguised as a handmaiden the two start to secretly meet at night and fall in love. It’s a beautiful love story complete with gorgeous magic shows and tricks. I’m going to lie, but magicians are one of my favourite kinds of profession. If a guy would woo me with magic tricks like Hwan Hee did the princesses, I think my life would be complete. My favourite trick was probably the first trick he does for the princess with the fireflies. It’s touching and gorgeous, and made me extremely jealous, not something you’d want to miss.

The cinematography is very well done. If that’s your kind of thing, then this is defiantly a movie which should go on your list. There is a lot of imagery and suggestion in a lot of the scenes, leaving things to the audience to presume, instead of strictly saying what happens. For example in the first couple of scenes we have someone approaches a lady with a weapon and then in the next scene a handmaiden is picking up a shoe floating in the river. I love who ever directed this movie because they did an excellent job.

The actors are great and have captured the essence of their characters, in addition the costume and makeup were on peak. I put these two together as they are two of the aspects which identify a character. Unlike a lot of historical dramas I’ve seen, the poor magician who lives in a dirty part of a Qing Dynasty city - or Joseon Dynasty city I’m not sure which, I got confused – he doesn’t have perfectly clean hair. It’s greasy, messy and obviously hasn’t been washed in a while. Compare it to the dramas were a man who has been living in the slums for 18 years, looks like he just walked out of a Herbal Essences advert. That sounds like a really strange thing to pick up on, but it just adds that little bit of reality to such a made up story.
I like how the antagonist doesn’t really come into play that much until the end, excluding his role in the unfortunate back-story of our handsome protagonist and his blind gisaeng friend. We’re never explicitly told what happened in a lot of his back-story, leaving it up to the audience to guess why, what and how. I think this is a good item in the directing and writing of this movie as it leaves things to the imagination of the audience whilst allowing more screen time for the relationship between the princesses and the magician to deepen. Man do I love this story.
The two leads play their parts well; it is obvious that the princess is struggling with her identity and what she wants in life. The turmoil between being the princess who was sold by her family, the princess who will rule the country and the commoner that the magician thinks she is, can all been seen through the actors expressions and speech. The actor and the writers did an excellent job.
With a small addition to this list, the blind gisaeng friend of the magicians is amazing! I would have thought she was actually blind. Very often with actors who a re acting blind, they will blink or react, but she doesn’t. Props to her cause I felt like she needed a shout out.

There is no outstanding music which I can remember, or at least nothing which made me look up the OST on Youtube, however I think all of the music is instrumental. Which by no means is a bad thing. The music was absolutely beautiful, it made me happy. But that being said there isn’t much I can talk about with the music apart from the simple fact that it was very well written and performed.

Would I recommend this movie? Yes. If you are a fan of magicians, adorable love stories or beautiful cinematography this is a good movie to watch. It gets rather violent in parts, as old magic didn’t have very many human rights or rules against murder, but on most other occasions it’s a beautiful movie. From what I can tell our protagonist magician doesn’t kill people, it’s the magic by the other magicians which is nasty. Thought I should probably warn you in advance.

I hope you watch this and enjoy it as much as I did! Have fun ^^

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